25 Things You Didn't Know About Late Grateful Dead Genius Jerry Garcia

Jerry's full name was Jerome John Garcia--named after the Broadway musical composer Jerome Kern, who wrote more than 700 songs including "Ol' Man River"

Jerry earned three merit badges in the Boy Scouts for knot tying, compass reading and life-saving

One of Jerry's first jobs was picking apricots and beans in a local field

Jerry's first gig was in high school as a member of the Chords. The band won a contest and were allowed to record a song, choosing jazz and R&B pianist Bill Doggett's "Raunchy"

Garcia fell in love with country music while listening to Grand Ole Opry broadcasts with his grandmother. "I grew up in San Francisco listening to the Opry every Saturday night on the radio without knowing what I was hearing," said Jerry. "In fact, my first 45 was a Hank Williams record, a song called 'The Love Bug Itch'"

Jerry enlisted in the Army at age 17, but was dishonorably discharged just nine months later after eight AWOLs and two court martials

Jerry formed his first group, Bob and Jerry, in 1961 with friend Robert Hunter. The duo only performed a few times under the name

In 1964, Jerry joined up with future Dead members Bob Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and formed the jug band Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. The band featured instruments such as the jug, washboard and kazoo

Jerry performed in numerous groups prior to forming the Grateful Dead, including the Thunder Mountain Tub Thumpers, the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, the Badwater Valley Boys and the Godawful Palo Alto Bluegrass Ensemble. Good call on settling on the name that made you famous

After seeing The Beatles film' "A Hard Days Night," Jerry was inspired to change his jug band into a rock band

Jerry played on Jefferson Airplane's 1967 landmark psych-rock album 'Surrealistic Pillow,' but is only credited in the liner notes as "musical and spiritual advisor"

For his first solo album—1972's 'Garcia'—Jerry played all the instruments except the drums

Jerry was an avid collector of comic books. The band has been the inspiration for numerous comics throughout the years

Jerry's first commercial was a 30-second radio advertisement for Levis 501 jeans. Even Deadheads gotta eat

"Touch of Grey," aka the only song people who don't care about the Grateful Dead know, was both Jerry's and the Grateful Dead's only top ten hit

Jerry had his first art exhibit in 1991 at the Weir Gallery in Berkley, California, where his pieces ranged from $300 to $40,000

Jerry's favorite author was science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, best known for 'Farenheit 451,' 'The Martian Chronicles' and 'The Illustrated Man'

Jerry did musical and sound effects for the 1978 movie 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers,' where also made a brief cameo

Jerry can briefly be seen as an extra in crowd shots in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Look closely—very closely—during the scenes in India

The Police frontman Sting affectionately called Garcia "Father Christmas"

In 1989, Garcia testified about the plight of the rainforests at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus

Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper were both deadheads and gave Jerry a personal tour of the White House

One of Jerry's favorite hobbies was scuba diving. "Diving takes up a lot of the space that drugs used to," he told The New Yorker's Bill Barich in 1993. "It's an ecstatic experience. I love it almost as much as I love the music"

Jerry's last recording was a cover of country singer Jimmy Rodger's "Blue Yodel #9 (Standin' on the Corner)" as part of 'The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers,' a compilation put together by Bob Dylan. In a handwritten letter to Jerry, Dylan wrote, "You don’t have to yodel, but if you want to yodel, that’s OK too." The song was recorded two weeks before Garcia's death

After his death on August 9, 1995, half of Jerry's remains were scattered in the Ganges River in India, while the other half were scattered beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. The idea for the Ganges River came from Bob Weir, which came to him one night in a dream